Nature of Collective Bargaining

Nature of Collective Bargaining

"Voluntary negotiation between employers or employers' organizations and workers' organizations, with a view to the regulation of terms and conditions of employment by collective agreements."

Collective bargaining could also be defined as negotiations relating to terms of employment and conditions of work between an employer, a group of employers or an employers' organization on the one hand, and representative workers' organizations on the other, with a view to reaching agreement.

There are several essential features of collective bargaining, all of which cannot be reflected in a single definition or description of the process:

1) It is not equivalent to collective agreements because collective bargaining refers to the process or means, and collective agreements to the possible result, of bargaining. Collective bargaining may not always lead to a collective agreement.

2) It is a method used by trade unions to improve the terms and conditions of employment of their members.

3) It seeks to restore the unequal bargaining position between employer and employee.

4) Where it leads to an agreement, it modifies, rather than replaces, the individual contract of employment, because it does not create the employer-employee relationship.

5)The process is bipartite, but in some developing countries the State plays a role in the form of a conciliator where disagreements occur, or where collective bargaining impinges on government policy.